BHS boys hoops seeks consistency after Azusa Pacific trip

AZUSA — The Burroughs boys basketball team has plenty of potential in advance of the 2014-15 season — and is spending the summer trying to learn to play with the consistency necessary to turn that promise into success. The Burros played well for stretches in four games at the Azusa Pacific Tournament last weekend, but ultimately fell short in each contest.

AZUSA — The Burroughs boys basketball team has plenty of potential in advance of the 2014-15 season — and is spending the summer trying to learn to play with the consistency necessary to turn that promise into success. The Burros played well for stretches in four games at the Azusa Pacific Tournament last weekend, but ultimately fell short in each contest.

“In streaks, I thought that we played alright — there were times that we showed flashes of what we could be,” Burros head coach Doug Hayes said. “But that might be one of the most dangerous words in all of athletics — potential — because a lot of times we might look at potential and decide to keep doing what we’re doing thinking someday we might get there.”

At Azusa Pacific, the Burros faced Pioneer Valley (Santa Maria), defending CIF Southern Section Div. 6 champion Trinity Classical Academy (Valencia), Arroyo Grande and San Marino in games on Saturday and Sunday. In its opener, Burroughs played Pioneer Valley even for three quarters before the Panthers pulled away for the victory.

“They were very good clubs, but it’s not like we couldn’t have played with them — we should have played better and we just didn’t,” Hayes said. “We’re very, very streaky at the moment with execution of what we do — sometimes we do some things really nicely, and then we come up and dribble into two or three people and not fire it like we should.”

The four losses dropped Burroughs to 2-9 in summer action. Results and scores in June and July, however, take a back seat to the development of the Burros’ team — and Hayes said the players are still having trouble looking past that during the course of these summer contests.

“I’d be happy if the scoreboard wasn’t even on where we could see it at the moment, because we do all the really, really little things that make a successful offense when we’re ahead and when we’re winning,” Hayes said. “But then we see the numbers and we’re down, and all of a sudden a six-point deficit turns into a 12-point deficit just in a matter of seconds. We’re too focused right now on the scoreboard instead of on the basics.”

Burroughs is primarily focused on shaping its offense during the summer, and right now the biggest key to its development is patience. The Burros have a number of solid jump shooters on the team, and their offense is designed to create open shots for those players.

“What we really need to be striving for is patience, and understand that we are going to have to really determine through tempo of the game how successful we’ll be,” Hayes said. “When we play out of sorts or dribble to try and create shots instead of shooting open jump shots, we’re going to continue to get beat by not being able to transition as fast as teams can push the ball.

Page 2 of 2 - “Right now we’re really trying to help everybody understand how to control offensive tempo, score and be effective without having to play the whole game back on our heels. We spent a lot of time back on our heels this weekend.”

A lack of offensive rebounds over the weekend further highlighted Burroughs’ need of a methodical approach when it has the ball. On the defensive side in the four games, Hayes said the team struggled with effort and closing out shooters.

“We’re not focused on that every day, but they’re things they know how to do and have been trained to do, so they need to continue to do those things,” Hayes said.

As the summer progresses, Burroughs aims to turn flashes and streaks of quality play into something more. That is the Burros’ biggest challenge in advance of the upcoming season, and they are currently battling through it on a game-by-game basis.

“That is the difficult thing — at times you can see how good it really can be and where we could be in the long run, but it has to be a progression,” Hayes said. “Hopefully we’re going to get the hang of this and we’ll go from there.”

Burroughs returns to action on Wednesday at Antelope Valley High with a pair of games in the Antelope Valley Summer League. The Burros travel to the UC Irvine team camp this weekend, where they will play a minimum of six games from Friday through Sunday.

BHS’ junior varsity team will make its summer debut in the Cerro Coso Summer Basketball Tournament at the Ray McCue Center on Friday and Saturday. In pool play, the Burros play Trona on Friday at 2:50 p.m., face Immanuel Christian on Friday at 5:20 p.m. and take on Lee Vining on Saturday at 10:05 a.m. — bracket play starts on Saturday afternoon.